Tommy's Pies
by Chrys-DASL
Summary: When Tommy's mother gets on a Lipschitz kick again, he and Dil are forced into the workforce. Knowing her son would be difficult, Tommy is thrust into a local pie shop before he can protest. Soon he's cranking out pies with the delightful owner, but what will happen when the twins show up? One-shot.


He didn't want to do it. It was prime do-nothing season, summer, and temperatures were rising steadily everywhere. All Tommy wanted to do was curl up near a pool or underneath an air conditioning vent and relax, but that wasn't on Didi's agenda. She'd gotten back on the Lipschitz craze, and his latest book on teenagers said to give them more responsibility. She refused to let the boys touch the washing machine or dryer after some Incidents, and the vacuum was currently Stu's pet project, making her afraid of it. She could come up with similar excuses for other household chores and objects, so the next best decision was to make her sons get a job.

Dil was easy to employ. He'd been asking about this comics shop on Main Street for ages, so he was more than happy to ask the clerk about a job, again, now that he had full permission from his mother to do so.

Tommy, on the other hand, was going to be impossible to employ, so instead of sending him out on the beat himself, she filled out an application for him at a bakery across the street from the comics shop. If Tommy got the position, it would be easier to drive them there, she decided, but she knew the bigger hurdle would be convincing him to go to the job. It wasn't the job itself that was the problem. It was the task involved (making pies) and the uniform required (baby blue pinstripes, an old-style hat with a similar design, and baby blue booties for his shoes). Didi knew these weren't things he'd like, but she didn't give him a choice. It was go or face serious consequences, and thankfully that threat had worked over the years because Didi didn't know what those consequences would be.

The shop had an old style brick exterior complete with hand-painted signs on the window. The owner even had her young daughter do sidewalk advertisements using a huge bucket of chalk. She was just finishing an ad that said APPLE FRIED PIES SPECIAL! 50 CENTS EACH! when Didi stopped the car. Dil jumped out and practically ran into the comic book store. Tommy merely sat there looking out to the building. He didn't know about the uniform yet, but he knew the task ahead wouldn't be pleasant.

"You're building up skills you'll use for the rest of your life, Tommy. Go on in and make yourself proud. It's not me you're working for. It's you. Just think of what you can do with the money," Didi smiled, using her rearview to see if Tommy's door was even unlocked. It wasn't so she pressed the button on her door panel. Tommy jumped as if he'd been shot, and in a way he had. He knew that meant "Get out NOW!" in Mom Language, so he did.

The shop smelled like heaven, but Tommy knew from watching cooking shows that heaven sometimes came from hard work, and since he was bottom of the pile, a lot of that dirty work would fall on him. He stepped into the back, where the owner, Daisy, was pouring ingredients into a huge mixer.

"Oh hi, you must be Tommy!" she called over the noise, dumping one last bag of flour before joining him at the door. She was coated in flour but shook his hand anyway, "I'm happy to have some strong help around here. You're going to be my pie guy for the day. It's really easy, but you'll have to put on this uniform first," Daisy said, pointing to a uniform in a dry cleaning bag on the back wall.

Tommy grimaced, "Don't you have something a little more masculine?"

Daisy laughed and pointed to a picture hanging nearby, "They used to be pink during my pappy's day. Just put it on, kid. Clothes are just that, clothes, and anyone who bullies you for it probably deserves the black eye I'll give them. I don't let people pick on my employees, the same policy Pappy had back in the day. So get dressed and come get me. I'll show you how to scrub up."

Tommy was reluctant to put on the ridiculous outfit, but it was comfortable despite the look. He was grateful it was baby blue instead of pink, but he was still unclear about the scrub up thing. What did it mean?

He soon learned it meant "How to scrub as hard as possible without removing skin." Daisy promoted sanitation at all times, and even though he'd have on food prep gloves, he had to be clean beforehand. So he scrubbed a full thirty seconds before rinsing in scalding hot water. His hands were as red as lobster claws when he was finished, but Daisy was content. She led him to a huge table covered in wax paper that was coated in flour.

"You're my pie guy. I'll drop the dough, then you'll come behind me and drop a spoonful of filling. Today's special is apple, so we'll do a second batch of those first. Then we'll do Berry Surprise for tomorrow. The surprise is that it's every summer berry," she said in a stage whisper, moving to the mixer and turning it off. A machine hauled the mixing bucket to another conveyor belt. At the end of it, circles of dough came out. Daisy was suddenly in high gear, and Tommy had to be fast to keep up with the pies.

When the entire table was filled with dough circles with dabs of filling inside, Daisy showed him how to fold the pies and crimp the edges. Once she was satisfied, she moved behind him and filled some wooden boxes lined with wax paper with the pies he'd finished. He realized by how fast she did this that his goal was to be just as fast, but he had to be accurate too. He gradually got faster as the task continued, and soon she was moving them to another room, where another worker was going to fry them. Their job was to work on the Berry Surprise batches for tomorrow.

"These pies are different but the concept is the same. I'm going to line these miniature pie tins with dough. You'll spoon in enough filling to match the first one I'm going to show you. Then I'll come by with top pieces when you're done, and you'll come behind me and crimp them. When you're done crimping, I'll load them on a baking cart so I can get them to the ovens. Once they're done, we'll store them for tomorrow," Daisy explained.

"Wait, why the day before?" Tommy asked. He thought bakeries were supposed to do things the day of, not the day before.

Daisy shrugged, "That's how Pappy did it. One batch the day before, another the day of, because they sell too fast. If you waited, you'd have to make people wait. We can't do that in this business, and one day doesn't make much difference when you heat it back up. Now, maybe if we get better help around here, we can do it. But this is a summer job for you right now. Don't build that position for yourself then leave me in the fall," she winked, playfully punching his shoulder as they broke into more tasks.

As the day went on, Tommy was surprised to find himself okay with the work. It wasn't that hard, really, just meticulous, and the shop got extremely hot once the ovens had been on all day. Combined with the heat from customers coming in and out, and Tommy found his stupid hat was actually not so stupid. It collected the sweat, which meant it didn't get in the pies, and it helped cool him down. It was nice, and Tommy was actually looking forward to coming back the next day.

A week into his job, the others found out. Betty entered the shop with a disgruntled pair of teen twins behind her. They were both too busy with their phones to notice him at first, but when they did, both laughed heartily, which Daisy noticed.

"Hey, no bullying the help!" she called with a serious tone but a playful wink. Daisy could tell these were friends, not foes, but she still meant what she said.

"God, Tommy, what are you wearing?!" Lil exclaimed, looking him over.

"Yeah, dude, you look like a history project," Phil grinned, standing back to really take in his friend's new look.

"Hey, it has its perks. This job is pretty fun actually. I'm not miserable like Dil," Tommy said, pointing across the street, "He says he just stands around all day listening to music. He's not allowed to touch the merchandise at all."

"And here you are making the merch. I like it," Betty nodded, eyeing the twins, "Hey, you guys could use some extra money so I don't go broke. You want two more, Daisy?"

"I don't see why not," Daisy smiled. "If I had three or four teens helping me back here, it'd sure be a lot easier."

"We can get a fourth," Lil grinned, finding Chuckie's number in her phone. He answered quickly but was reluctant to join in. When Tommy told them about the baked goods policy, where unsold products were given out after three days, Chuckie decided it was worth it.

The next day, Tommy lead the pack once Daisy had them trained. It was trial and error as they tried to pick up the techniques Tommy had already practiced for days, but they worked together to make some very good products. They were even able to finish faster, which meant going home faster, something they were all happy with. They found their way over to Chuckie's pool to hang out.

Around five, Didi stopped by with an exhausted Dil to pick up Tommy. When Dil realized his older bro had been swimming and hanging out all afternoon while he stood bored in a comic book shop, he knew he had to ask about a job there.

"Sorry, Dil. I don't think she has any more places after hiring the others. Even Kimi is probably out of luck, but she likes helping her mom," Tommy smiled, leaning back in his seat, "You should've asked sooner. Besides, this pie stuff is actually pretty fun. Mom, can I make a pie for Sunday dinner?"

"Sure," Didi nodded, a smile on her lips. She knew there was a reason she'd gotten back into Lipschitz. He might be a quack, but he was often right, and she was happy this was one of those times.

~End

Theme 205: First Job

A/N: Theme from my Infinite Theme List Challenge. It's on my profile if you want to check it out.

I know I rushed this a little, but this is my favorite kind of one-shot, just a random moment focusing on one or two characters in one situation. I actually used a random generator I made up to get this combination (I got Tommy and Theme 205, so I went with it), and I thought doing pies would be fun.

For the record, I'm thinking of Southern fried pies during this piece. If anyone wants more info on that, let me know. I'd put it here but y'all would be envious we have such delicious goodness down here while y'all are missing out:D

Hope you guys enjoyed this, and if anyone has ideas or wants to attempt the themes, shoot me a PM and I'll get back to you when I can.

Update A/N: I'm updating some Rugrats stuff and found this in my files. I definitely want to do more one-shots like this in the future:)


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